Bill Thompson
Bill is a retired attorney and Federal Government executive who spent many years representing labor unions, running an agency of the US Congress, and serving as a Senior Executive in US Labor Department. Bill is a certified spiritual counselor and amateur iconographer. Bill also currently represents undocumented persons on a pro bono basis in immigration proceedings on behalf of Catholic Charities of the DC area. Bill and his family live in the Maryland suburbs of DC. Bill’s maternal grandfather – Everett S. Wilson – was a principal leader of the Ku Klux Klan in the Eastern Panhandle during the period between World War I and World War II. Both sides of Bill’s family have deep roots in eastern WV. Bill is dedicated to unearthing and sharing as much as possible about the activities of the Klan in the Eastern Panhandle during the first half of the 20th century.
William Zakee McGill
Zakee McGill has family roots that extend back to before West Virginia was a state. An ancestor repatriated to Liberia, Africa prior to the Civil War to escape the virulent racism. Like his father, he was born in Martinsburg. His father attended Sumner-Ramer School in Martinsburg. His mother, born in Charles Town, graduated from Storer College in Harpers Ferry. In the 1940s, his parents moved the family to Philadelphia so the children could attend non-segregated schools. He is past president of the Berkeley County WV NAACP and a practicing psychiatrist.
Sylvia Bailey Shurbutt
Trained in linguistics and nineteenth-century British and American literature, Sylvia is
former Director of the Center for Appalachian Studies and Communities at Shepherd
University and Coordinator of Appalachian Graduate Studies. Over the years at
Shepherd, she taught many students and mentored graduate students through their MA
degrees, including Seeking Truth team member Jessie Shanholtz. For nine years, she
coordinated the Appalachian Heritage Festival at Shepherd. Sylvia is managing editor of the 16-volume Anthology of Appalachian Writers, an annual collection of Appalachian,
poets, fiction writers, essayists, and photographic artists. Her many academic
publications include scholarly journal articles, book chapters, and encyclopedia entries
as well as several books about travel, writing, and literature. Her book Silas House:
Exploring an Appalachian Writer’s Work was nominated for the South Atlantic Modern
Language Association’s 2022 Book Award. Her latest publication is Conflict and
Resolution: Eco-Environmentalism in Charles Frazier’s Anti-War Novel Cold Mountain
published in Appalachian Ecocriticism and the Paradox of Place in 2023
Barbara Miller
Jessie Shanholtz
Addison Reese
Barbara Miller is a professor of sociocultural anthropology and international affairs at
George Washington University in Washington, DC. Her interests include social inequality and social justice, health, food security, and human rights. Her early publications explored discrimination against daughters in rural northern India. She has
also done fieldwork in Bangladesh and Jamaica. Her current focus is learning about the
history of the 80 miles between Washington, DC, and Martinsburg, WV, and
contemporary lives there, especially the untold stories of people from diverse backgrounds. She has lived in Martinsburg since 2014 and enjoys being back in a small
town, having been born and grown up in one in central New York State. For her, every day is eye-opening and educational. Her hope is to create a book of essays based on
her experiences listening and learning over the past decade. To that end, she posts an essay every Wednesday, called Report from across the Border, on her Facebook page.
Jessie is a Shepherd University graduate student in the M.A. in Appalachian Studies program. As a part of the research portion of her program, Jessie has spent many hours researching primary source information for the Seeking Truth project, developing a project plan, and building a project website. Jessie is an Appalachian native with a strong interest in local history and social justice. She holds a B.S. in Sociology from Shepherd College, and an MBA in Non-Profit Management from American Public University. She lives with her daughter in Shepherdstown, WV.
Addison Reese is chair of the Jefferson County Historic Landmarks Commission. She has a background in education and works at the Shepherdstown Public Library where she has conducted genealogy and local history research workshops. She specializes in cemetery restoration and is the caretaker of the Kearneysville Methodist/Boyd Carter Memorial Cemetery and is also an assistant superintendent for Fairview-Gibsontown Cemetery. Addison has worked to get funding for restoration projects, recently receiving $18,500 from the Helen Parker Willard Fund for Kearneysville Methodist Cemetery, Fairview-Gibsontown Cemetery, Rose Hill Cemetery and Middleway-Slabtown Cemetery.She is a board member of the African American Community Association of Jefferson County (AACAJC) and part of the Mayor’s Select Committee for the African American Cemetery in downtown Charles Town. Addison has written historical articles for the Shepherdstown Observer, given many talks about Black cemetery restoration projects in Jefferson County, and assists people with genealogical research.
Martinsburg-Berkeley County, WV NAACP, Branch 3242 